Gore Vidal: 'We'll have a dicatatorship soon in the US'

screw ALL OF YOU who buy into this russian jacka** discriminating all of You, Us and You guys as well up there commenting on "ya, love this guy!" oh yes extremely intelligent and liberal speaking! Get off Our AMERICAN Website, We do not come here and speak so terrible negative of other cultures in plain text! Really. Most of you are terrible and judgemental. This man comes from Russia. Of course he is complaining that country cant even take care of their beautiful women. Let the feedback fly- Starting Now! :D

Gore doesn't seem to love his country. but he is allowed to express certain thoughts. he has the skills and the authority to do that....

Checks and Balances you guys re way way off. That's what Cap and Trade is about and Obama Care is about.
But, gents bought into the idea that your American Vote counts. You better go back to school and get a better education because your in for a wild ride with El Diablo,
the new self annoited Christ ego. Last laugh is on you because he is going to wipe his with you and your going to be picking your teeth getting the shit out after he is finished.

Yes, maybe distant but very real. Yo, and Gore is most likely related to the white slave master overseer who whatched Fredrick Douglass who tricked white people into teaching him how to read and write; nevertheless;we have a black President who now has the opportunity to enslave every white and black mother blanker. Haaa Haaa, so enjoy your new found slavery and start grovling for your meals, gas, and any other things you moight need because Amerika is now going to control you sucker. Start licking my boots because the new world order is here and I will be kicking your ass just for enjoyment because Total Control does not have to have reason just motivation. Haaaaa Haaaaaaa Haaaaaaaaaaaaa

I will die fighting a dictatorship or a military run society I would happily die trying. We the People? % | And I consider myself part of the intellectual class.

you know, I've thought of this before but what would a peasant like me ever do haha! I'm happy such a smart and influential man can say it. I believe ignorance is greater now than ever...Hope it changes

There's no secret that the schoolsystem in USA has been in shambles for a very long time. Illiteracy is rampant in so many parts of the country, that it is frightening. Especially considering that literacy is a skill that is neccessary in order to be able to learn more advanced skills, like math for instance.

Gore Vidal is a literary talent, to be sure. But dictatorship? Not a chance. America's isolationist tendencies will force us to implode internally well before one common bond - i.e. fear - can unite us. Moreover, despite our vapid, overindulgent citizenry being theoretically vulnerable to authoritarianism, it is precisely this 'collective ignorance' that will prevent us from ever becoming united by anyone or anything.

Not that I have given up completely on us all, but the fact that 99% of college-educated Americans actually think we live in a Democracy exacerbates the crisis.

Vidal probably is saddened that his life is coming to an end and that he didn't do enough to change the world. I bet he regrets all the Caviar he shoved down his throat while he watched America burn since teh 1968 convention (when he actually was fighting for something).

Bottom line: He and all the rest of us continually and consistently sell each other out for our own self interest. Furthermore, the intellectual response to perhaps the greatest essayist of this time is - ironically a cartoon: We are infinitely closer to Wal-E than to Hitler.

Hey I voted for Obama and I have lways been against Bush, but Gore Vidal just came across as cynical, and completely bitter and pessimistic.

It looked like he was complaining about everything. And no I don't agree with his statement. I think he is wrong...

......because LYRICS,.....ARE important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw54-rCIrPs

thanx

Gore Vidal is related to our unoffical energy Zar former
vice president to, head Cock, Bill Clinton and in more ways you can imagine. Al Gore now stands to make Billions of dollars pushing the Global warmming senario to all of us. But, what is really happenening is global cold= Ice Age. But go ahead believe what you may Internet insanity exists every where. I know One thing for sure Elvis Presley Is Alive. Ha Haa Ha

its already happened, nobody realizes it yet.

thebigco said:

"a girl in my class asked me who Benjamin Franklin was today... she has a 4.0 GPA"

The Making of the Idiocracy.

This is the best interview I have read or heard in a long time. I really wish we lived in a world where Gore Vidal had enough money to run for president.

Just another pissed off intellectual lefty who regrets his choice.

Sounds like Mr.Vidal's mind these days is more pimiento than Palimpset.

He's such a wise person. An amazing writer and speaker. I however don't think we're utterly that doomed.

It would be nice Vidal had any historical evidence to back up these claims.

This is seemingly possible, yet the focal point of a military dictatorship is surprisingly...THE MILITARY. The same us military that is undermanned and unmotivated in this war overseas. Your telling me that our soldiers will be willing to follow suit under a dictator against their own people? This is a civilian army. This country becoming socialistic...maybe slightly...but a totalitarian regime through military reinforcement? Not anytime soon.

Uh that happened way before Bush.

Woodrow Wilson lied to Congress while he was trying to deal with the Treaty of the Great War.

I disagree, we have an intellectual class it's just not the 'top' class on the foodchain. Our intellectual class are the early to mid twenties impoverished Interneters.

thanks for putting this on current. Provocative and Alarming. Get your heads out of the sand america! no pun intended.

"what a bitter old fuck."

"This guy sounds like an arrogant, elitist ass to me."

"This is why we have guns."

"Gore is getting a little cynical in his old age. I think he vastly underestimates the will of the American people."

WOW! There's three in a row and a simply untrue statement.

This is the kind of stuff that Vidal is talking about: there's no more discourse, no more reasonable thought or debate, only violence or the threat of violence hanging over everything. The president is becoming more and more of a target every day and most on the right seem to be OK with that. As an American citizen, that's just astounding to me; but it seems to be the new world order now.

There is no doubt in my mind that Vidal speaks the truth and his predictions will mostly come true -- the country is WELL on its way.

As far as the now empty platitude of the "will of the American people", think again! When was the last time you saw the will of the American people manifest itself? People that could make a change for the better are so apathetic it's not even worth talking about. The "tyranny of the weak": it's what America is now. The weakest, dumbest people make the most noise and get the most attention while the rest of us sit around and watch. The liberals bitch a little, but have no real backbone and don't fight back and can't seem to get anything done, majority or not. This see-saw will probably swing back to the Repubs in 2012 and then swing again in 2016 or 2020. It's an endless cycle that WILL probably devolve into a police state and THAT is a goddamned shame.

Bah, even the dumbest people know that they don't want a dictatorship. They will just do more outrageous and dumb things to avoid it. What we need is efficiency, and I would like to believe we are moving closer to that.

I was somewhat nonplussed by that first statement, to the effect that America is rotting away at a funereal pace. Were he trying to sound an alarm, I would have expected him to say that America was RAPIDLY falling apart, not doing so at the slow, trudging pace appropriate for a funeral march.

His comment that America has no intellectual class was also a bit confusing to me insofar as I didn't know whether he meant that we lacked a societal stratum of intellectuals or whether he meant that we as a people are simply too coarse and unrefined to be "intellectually classy."

Crap. Apparently, he out-witted me before I finished the first paragraph.

Never one to allow mere intellectual humiliation stand in my way, however, I would submit that America is well-stocked with millions of bright, thoughtful and well-educated individuals (and all three of those adjectives apply to a lucky few...or so I hear). I am far more concerned that we are losing (have lost?) the sense of interrelatedness that was a critical part of our culture until quite recently.

I know there are still neighborhoods in America where folks get out and have barbecues and talk to each other. As they converse, they toss out their most recent thoughts on politics and child-rearing and home maintenance, etc. To the extent they may have strayed a bit too far afield, the sudden, stunned silence of their friends and neighbors gives them that non-verbal cue that they might just want to rethink one or two of those ideas. This is how people in our country have historically found ways of getting along with each other. It is a process kind of like stones tumbling among each other on the bottom of a fast-moving stream: the sharp edges and rough patches are smoothed over.

I think that too many American households have effectively become silos. All or most of the members of the family spend virtually all of the time not spent at work or school glued to the television set. Mom or Dad (or both) get a few wacky ideas in their heads ("He wants to pull the plug on Grandma!" "We should read Palin's book!") and there is nobody around to provide the "stunned silence."

We are a smart enough bunch. Heck, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a major university... ; )

a girl in my class asked me who Benjamin Franklin was today... she has a 4.0 GPA

Gore is getting a little cynical in his old age. I think he vastly underestimates the will of the American people.

This is why we have guns.

This guy sounds like an arrogant, elitist ass to me.

He's right.

Less than 10 percent of Americans read books.

History lesson #1: don't underestimate just how much dumb people in large numbers can fuck up.

I don't know about a dictatorship but one thing is for sure: Obama is a dead man walking.
Somewhere, sometime before the next presidential elections, someone will get a clear shot at the guy.
And if he misses there'll be plenty more retards willing to "get my country back" by voting with their assault rifles.

that's some serious pessimism.

what a bitter old fuck.

Vidal is undoubtedly a very intelligent and I think he's right on 90% of what he said. But something is awry in regard to his support of and praise for McVeigh. "Vidal became a supportive correspondent of Timothy McVeigh, who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 people. The huge loss of life, indeed McVeigh’s act of mass murder, goes unmentioned by Vidal. “He was a true patriot, a Constitution man,” Vidal claims." Vidal doesn't care to acknowledge McVeigh's murdering of all those innocent adults and children? So as intelligent and aware he is there's a problem with his judgment so I don't think he has credence in his assessments of the future of this Country.

He led a colorful life and can quip and quote along with the best of them, but Mr. Teeman's article is simply an adoring portrait of a wizened old firebrand.

But let's be serious. This is not a string of pearls. It's just a scatter-shot rant by a cynical old curmudgeon.

He smears all Americans in absurdly broad strokes, predicts the assassination of the president and all this from a man who called the unibomber a patriot?

He's entertaining, outrageous, witty! No doubt. But hardly a source of wisdom.

Re-read the article. Just another rant.

The article is written by what used to be a sharp mind....I am afraid to notice that Mr. Vidal shows signs of dementia, respectfully I can say that only who suffers from senility can state such a thing.
Military Dictatorship?? Has he ever been to the US? Is this a fiction article part of some sort of fantasizing paper? Gore Vidal actually wrote: " soon"...Sir, are you serious?

With all due respect, some of his points are right, but the outcome that he foresees is completely unreasonable.

Education is changing, though - it used to mean books. Now it's tipping off into a strange land. We may not resemble our past, but the future might not be so grim.

"We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon" - most stupid thing I ever heard...

The US will probably never have a military dictatorship... and saying it will happen "fairly soon" is even more absurd.

There's no need for a military dictatorship in the US. The rich still have the country over control... and they will continue to have it under control for as long as the "people" elect Republicans and Democrats.

But our slime is so obvious. I work in a community/burbs of 275,000 with only one asphalt plant--beware upstarts! The only plant in town is the only game in town...They put out a shit product used over and over and over again city contract after city contract.
Cement-- same thing. There may be many concrete companies, but "regionally controlled" cement suppliers.
Liquor distribution. Tobacco product distribution. Look into it just a little. Ask your favorite liquor store owner how it works. Prepare to be amazed. Far from free enterprise.
Try to change it.
You can't. Illinois is such a wealthy high tech mess with most people scrambling. Wisconsin not much better--just superior fishing and asphalt.
National contracts? Competitive bidding? Where did we lose it? To those not afraid to kill someone or to those who need to repay a political favor. That's where we lost it.
Who really shot RFK. He was looking into it. Has anybody since? RFK not JFK...Maybe John suggested looking into it.
I am exposed to defense contracting on occasion. Believe it or not, I think the contractors I come across are basically honest...these are the guys who turn out small machined parts for components of bigger things...we hold these parts in our hands and neither of us have a clue as to what it would be used for...now what happens above them...?
Put it in this box and ship it out.

Gore really hits the nail on the head.

What’s so fascinating about the Republican party and the people that repeatedly vote them into power is that they hate having leaders that are smarter than they are. If you can SPELL “tariff” and can give an educated explanation for the pros and cons of implementing one….then you are HATED by all people who self-identify themselves as “conservative Republicans.”

They hate Harvard educated Barack Obama, but worship GED-totting (possibly learning disabled) Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

The dumber you are, the more power the conservative voters want you to have!

Would you pick a doctor that way?

“So yer some kind of egghead that went to an Ivy League to git yer medical degree? Ya’ll thinks you is better than me, dontcha? Well go to hell! I want a REAL AMERICAN doctor that only went to community college and got all C’s. Oh, and believes that Jesus is magic!”

(eye roll)

God save us from conservative Americans.

If true... Who will be the Dictator?

even a blind man can sometimes see the truth....

Why does everyone keep brown nosing this man, he doesn't know any more then the next person, this is all semi hypocritical in a way, due largely to the fact that any wisdom he's gleaned from his hard life was reflected in his personal choices just like all the rest.

he states retraction of his beliefs when its convenient , (ala Hillary/Obama)

Americans. .. Are we in trouble?. .. of course we are!, but it is a farce to believe that it hasn't always been this way, we just communicate it more, and in someways it is to our detriment causing a frenzy of ass kissing and saving.

Vidal shows his ignorance (no mater how poignant or eloquent) when he says woulda, shoulda, coulda about Obama and his handling of education/war/health care, without acknowledging that the political game is a game of chess with infinite kings. every move you make there is a response to counter and even when you topple one opponent another takes its place. . .usually with daggers at your 6.

Is this man an artist? without a doubt hes has a gift of gab as some would say. Hes collected a reputation of being on the fringe yet staying respectable. this shows some careful calculation and talent. This does not mean however his reflection and inflections are absolute.

Gore Vidal is popular among the left when bashing Christians and Republicans, but he's curiously un-trendy when talking about things like 9.11 being an inside job. He also tells the truth about environmentalism, which very few liberals want to hear:

Vidal in 1989, in The Nation magazine:

"Soon there will be a worldwide Green movement, and the establishment of a worldwide state, which the few will take over, thus enslaving us all while forgetting to save the planet."

He correctly foresaw that the demise of the USSR and the Cold War paradigm would need to be replaced by a new mythology; thus we have our Global Warming crisis. As Aldous Huxley recognized,

"Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government."

This makes sense because the only part of Government the republicans love is the military, even though thats what is single handedly bankrupting this country. I am sure republicans would love a dictator as long as he was Christian and says they can keep their guns.

America has a very thin educated intellectual class.
Very thin. And the anti-pointy headed intellectuals hate rant pushed by RW radio are numerous.

Anyone notice how Rush and the RW talkers make intellectualism a bad word while simultaneously saying how dumb and bad our high school students have become. Well they really want dumb people and they help create them. They can convince the dumb to do anyting and especially to vote against their economic interest.

Maybe historical knowledge has something to do with it ;)

Check this for size... http://www.mtwsfh.blogspot.com

I respect Gore Vidal, but I have noticed that he NEVER has anything good to say about this country. I am nowhere near as distinguished as he is, but I don’t see where he gets his constant pessimism.

“Does anyone care what Americans think? They’re the worst-educated people in the First World. They don’t have any thoughts, they have emotional responses, which good advertisers know how to provoke.”

I feel like attending college in Southern California makes me think a lot more negatively about this place >.>

We crossed the bridge to the 21st century to find a nation of illiterates ruled by predators.